We humans yearn for purpose. No one wants to waste their life doing pointless stuff, but how do we know which stuff is important, and which isn’t?
How do we figure out our purpose in life?
One step at a time.
Take this blog as an example. When I started blogging three years ago, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was told that a blog should have a clear purpose, but I had no idea what my purpose was supposed to be. So I ignored that advice and wrote about whatever seemed worthwhile.
After all, I didn’t want to box myself into a topic that would quickly become confining.
I experimented with a variety of topics, and over time I began to narrow down what my blog was. And what it was not.
Eventually I hit upon the tagline: Everyday Lives, Extraordinary Possibilities. Which sounded great, and encouraging and all—but I still could not explain my blog’s purpose in a single sentence.
It was frustrating.
Sometimes I felt like the whole blogging thing was a big failure, but whenever I got really dejected, one of you would send me a message thanking me for something I had posted.
So I kept at it.
After much pondering I began to see a common thread in many of my posts—something I could actually define in a few words. Many of the topics that I felt most passionate fell under the concept of intentional living.
What do I mean by that? According to Wikipedia, Intentional living is:
a lifestyle based on an individual or group’s conscious attempts to live according to their values and beliefs.
I have refined my purpose, redesigned the look, and renamed my blog.
Instead of Lisa’s Musings, this blog will now become Live Intentionally. I hope you like the new, clean design, thanks to Alison McLennan of McLennan Creative.
More importantly, I hope you continue to find useful, practical, and encouraging posts that will help you live a more satisfying, more intentional life. (I’ve actually been posting on this topic for months now, so there won’t be much change in the content.)
I hope to bring the new version online by next week, but you can see a preview of the new look here.
I’d love to hear what you think about these changes. And I’d love to know what aspects of intentional living you wish I would write more about. Here are a few potential topics:
- decluttering and organizing
- strategies to enjoy life more fully
- healthy attitudes
- defining our values, and how to stand up for them
- learning to understand accept ourselves, and then become our best self
- strategies and encouragement to find and live out our purpose
- pursuing dreams
- fighting fear and procrastination
- developing our unique creativity and passions
